In the spring of 1840, the seven divisions of the Southern Union gathered north and south of the Longjiang River.

War is on the verge of breaking out.

In fact, the Loyalist army had been at war with the Liberal so-called Forces nouvelles, which had placed their most elite units in the south to defend against the Nationalists.

After thorough preparations, Sean issued a mobilization order to the whole army on February 28, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the alliance, calling on all the officers and men of the Nationalist Army to march bravely to the north.

The battle began at dawn on March 1.

After three days of fierce fighting, the Nationalist Army broke through two lines of defense of the New Army and regained seven towns until it was surrounded by heavy enemy troops.

At this time, the Nationalist Army was faced with a large number of bunkers and fortifications built by the enemy. Although it had been expected, it was obvious that the enemy army had not done anything in recent years, and they were also equipped with a large number of new rifles, and their tactics and tactics were also moving closer to the Nationalist Army, which brought inevitable casualties to the Nationalist Army.

The 1st Corps, having annihilated more than 1 division of the enemy, lost 1 brigade of its own, which was a good exchange ratio, but it was clearly beyond the reach of the corps commander Luca Mora.

Faced with the enemy's doggy bunker and crossfire net, as well as the large number of artillery pieces, Commander Mora realized that the enemy army had evolved over the years.

The Nationalist Army is still a brand-new unit, and it has been a unit with brand-new tactics since its birth, and now the enemy army has effectively stifled the tactics that the Nationalist Army once tried and tested with this seemingly dull but extremely effective tactics.

In a sense, the Nationalist Army had been engaged in asymmetrical warfare, and its enemies, the Bilisians, were not only lagging behind it in weapons, but also extremely conservative in their tactics, which led to the Bilisians always being beaten passively on the battlefield.

By the end of March, the 1st Army Corps, although inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, did not appear as they had optimistically estimated - the enemy fled in despair.

After the enemy army adapted to the combat style of the national army, the more stubborn it became.

In this regard, Sean did not blame his subordinates, he had been mentally prepared for this. Standing at his height, the massive amount of information about the enemy army gave him enough knowledge of the strength of the enemy army, and the Holy City spent almost the vast majority of its resources on increasing the strength of the army.

Under the gloomy sky, the sound of artillery rumbled, and everywhere was the choking smell of gunsmoke.

A group of Nationalist soldiers lay on the ground and couldn't lift their heads. In the trench ahead, the enemy army was full of shadows. There were soldiers of the National Army who threw several grenades at the enemy with great difficulty, and the grenades exploded in the crowd of enemy soldiers.

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the explosion, the pair of soldiers suddenly stood up and ran towards the trench. When they jumped down the trench, they found that the enemy had built several hiding holes in the trench that could only accommodate two or three soldiers.

The enemy opened fire suddenly, and the nationalist soldiers, with nowhere to stop, fell in pools of blood.

The Nationalist soldiers observing from the front gave the order for an artillery strike, and in less than twenty seconds, a large number of shells saturated the attack towards the place where the group of soldiers fell.

Flowering shells poured down as if they didn't want money, and the enemy had to find cover. And when the cannonfire stopped, it was the time when the national army charged, and at this time, the enemy army was like a poisonous snake awakened from the eyes of winter, and they raised their rifles to counterattack.

For every soldier, war is life and death, or life and death, and has nothing to do with any doctrine.

For every trench or bunker contested, the national army had to pay a considerable price. In many cases, it was hand-to-hand combat between the soldiers of both sides.

Sean set up his headquarters less than twenty kilometers from the front line, and the combat reports on the front line were delivered to him like water every hour.

He seldom interfered with the command of the front-line command, and most of what he did was to coordinate the plan and study the situation of the front-line friend and foe with the senior officers.

In the eyes of his subordinates, Sean is always calm and victorious, but in fact, he doesn't have any panacea to defeat his opponents quickly.

Before the outbreak of the war, his subordinates developed a tendency to win quick wins, which in fact represented the views of many Southerners.

This is understandable, because on the surface, the soldiers of the national army are well fed, and the military equipment is simply as good as boiled water.

A month after the outbreak of the war, the casualties at the front were somewhat unbearable for the senior officers, and they were surprised by the stubbornness of the enemy forces. In the eyes of the national officers, their own soldiers were too precious.

"A soldier is just a number, especially for our enemies. Obviously, our firepower is much stronger than that of the enemy, but the enemy's numerical superiority, as well as the strong fortifications that have been built with a lot of manpower and material resources, and they also pay special attention to artillery, and the level of training of the artillery is not inferior to ours, which largely neutralizes our superiority in firepower. ”

Sean said to his men, he looked around and continued:

"War is not only fought by the hearts and minds of the people, nor only by the courage of the soldiers, but also by the amount of war resources. In other words, war is fought in terms of overall strength, and for now it is just a dessert before dinner, and we will not see any signs of the enemy showing signs of decline until at least the end of the year. You must abandon the idea of quick victory, and fight one battle after another until our enemies succumb. ”

"What the Commander-in-Chief means is that the enemy is far from exhausted, and in the last few years they have been preparing around this war and are well stocked," said the chief of the General Staff, Villar Perosa. Also, don't forget that the Assyrian army has not yet moved south. ”

At the mention of the Assyrians, the officers present all gritted their teeth, and the complicity of the nouveau riche of the Holy City with the invaders was enough to make everyone angry.

"This is the reason why we are involved in this war, and it is the duty of every Europa soldier to liberate the Europa people from enslavement. Sean's gaze fell on Luca Mora, "So, the situation facing the 1st Legion is insignificant, and you have more important responsibilities to bear." ”

"Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, I review to you, as a commander, I have underestimated the enemy. Luca Mora bowed his head and said.

Sean shook his head: "No, I didn't mean to accuse you, the 1st Legion is actually doing very well. I wanted the 1st Legion to be withdrawn first, and the other Legions to take turns in the battle, and all the troops had to really feel the brutality of the fierce battle. Because everyone is queuing, are you embarrassed to occupy the best position?"

All the officers laughed, and before Sean finished speaking, he raised his hands and rushed to speak, sweeping away the somewhat dull mood before.

"According to the sequence of operations, each corps has one month to serve as the main attack. Sean finally ordered.